September 13, 2007

You have to be a better actress before you can play the Hollywood-is-ageist-and-sexist card. You were once the beautiful young actress who displaced older, better actresses. Who cares if you can preserve your youth and beauty? There are always new beautiful women. You only have an argument for prolonging your career if you're actually a terrific actress. You're not. So get out of the way and give other women a chance. You already got more than you deserve.

Demi is the example of non-stop surgical enhancement...check her out in the movie "Blame it on Rio" when she had tiny little peanuts and the gradual increase in boobage through the years...by 2010 she should be approaching Russ Meyer territory….also see the film for one of Michael Caine’s most intellectual performances

She appeared fully nude in Oui magazine in 1981. I remember 1981 pretty clearly. But her present husband, Ashton Kutcher, was 3 years old then.

Demi had a killer part in the last Charlie's Angels movie, going toe to toe and bikini to bikini with Cameron Diaz. It was a silly, silly movie that still made lots of money, and probably ought to have been her swan song ... unless she finds that elusive acting ability and can mount a "comeback" as a character actress. It doesn't sound from these quotes like she's mellowing, though.

If I'm not mistaken Ms. Moore has, on several occasions, produced a movie here and there. So if she's so worried about a lack of good roles for women over 40, how about write a movie about women over 40 and produce it herself??

Could it be that such a movie wouldn't make a lot of money and THAT'S really want bothers her...her pocketbook?

They makes movies about anything these days, Demi, so invest your money...

oh and the last time I checked Helen Mirren won an Oscar last year and she's way over 40.

She took those years off after GI Jane, and probably shouldn't have, if she wanted to keep her career. If you're a chick in Hollywood you can't afford to leave the spotlight unless you're four times more talented or ten times more notorious than Demi is. Doing the Cougar act with Kutcher didn't help, either.

This is funny, for just the reasons you say. She's never been a good actress. She was just a certain kind of babe. Not a Pam Anderson, more of a neighborhood girl that the male star either was married to or wanted to sleep with. But she was never a good actress. Michelle Pfieffer, Glenn Close, Jodie Foster are all around the same age as Demi Moore, and they still get hired.

The serious issue, which Demi Moore is not the one to talk about, is the dearth of female lead roles generally. In the golden age, the two top above the title stars were one man, one woman. Now, the norm is one man, another man.

Looking at the cited article, there is a certain darkness about Demi that she should push. While in the past she has played the wife, girlfriend, etc., in the future she should stick to playing the villan, somewhat like she did in the last Charlie's Angels. The scheming aging female who is trying to steal the guy from the deserving younger woman.

This is as good of a time to have an ethnic look as there ever has been in this country. Salma Hayek, Jessica Alba, Eva Longoria, Eva Mendes regularly appear near the top of those Maxim type lists of Hottest Babe of 200X.

I thought with Hollywood being run by liberals, they would treat their women better. Harvey Weinstein, Steven Spielburg, et al should stop being so sexist.

Maybe Demi should cut her hair, I saw something on MSN that questioned whether a woman over 40 should have long hair. Personally, I think she pulls it off very well, but maybe I am in the minority.

One, it would Demi to have a personality transplant that included the concept of "warmth."

Two, the ones complaining about actresses turning 40, didn't seem to do so when they were cashing big checks before they could legally drink, and not for their acting chops. But now that the Manolo is on the other foot...

John Stodder said... This is funny, for just the reasons you say. She's never been a good actress. ....snip...Michelle Pfieffer, Glenn Close, Jodie Foster are all around the same age as Demi Moore, and they still get hired.

while I agree, Demi is 45 and Glenn Close is 60, yet Glenn gets three times the work.

Glenn is a better actress, will take more parts, and will work into her 70's I expect if she wants to.

Demi should take a clue from her husbands (ex and present), who are both average actor--make work for yourself, don't wait for it to come to you.

(The truth is, she's not looking for acting jobs per se, but blockbuster movies to appear in with equally large paychecks. If she wanted to act, I'll produce a showcase movie for her if she foots the bill and appears in it.)

There is a certain amount of truth to the US entertainment system "using up" youth and only allowing careers to a handful of mature entertainers.Pointing out Helen Mirren gets work is besides the point. She is in that handful of older women allowed in what casting agencies say is the obligatory sea of young, attractive women in the product mix that seeks the 12-29 demographic, the 30-54 demographics. Older men can last because they are still favored by target audiences...

British actress Charlotte Rampling also condemned the treatment of actresses of a certain age.

The 61-year- old said: "The system in Europe is nothing like in Hollywood. It is not so barbaric in terms of the ageing process."

Charlotte Rampling is a good actress. She is also one in 100,000 women in her looks, being able to do an erotic full nude set of scenes in "The Pool" when she was in her late 50s. But she is also right that Euro and Japanese media are more inclusive of mature women in their casting processes.

Demi wouldn't have liked it.

In Europe, they would have cast, in "A Few Good Men", the part of the supervising JAG lawyer to a 50-year old woman who could act like Suzannah York or Rampling. Not a 32-year old ex-model who couldn't act, like Demi..

One 40-ish actress who was helped by implants and talent was Kyra Sedgewick, who made a hit out of "The Closer" and gets some great movie parts.

Men have it rough too, in the million-dollar entertainer world, in certain fields, so I don't feel sorry for Demi. Roger Federer is 26 and is thought to have only 3-4 years of "great tennis" left. The average NFL pro running back lasts 3 years.

"The truth is, she's not looking for acting jobs per se, but blockbuster movies to appear in with equally large paychecks"

Yeah, this is what I was thinking (But hadn't been able to articulate).The kinds of roles she wants basically have to go to younger actresses (if the audience knows you're 40, sorry you can't play 30 on the big screen, it's not the legitimate threater).

And she's not a terrible actress but she has a pretty narrow range (and probably doesn't realize it). And she's been miscast too often in roles that needed skills she didn't have.

If she wanted work as an actress, she'd lay off the plastic surgery already and go the character route (tending toward villainesses and MILFs, two types that fall within her range).

Demi Moore's other problem is the arc her career took. She had a few years' success following "Ghost", but headlined a number of complete turkeys ("Scarlet Letter" and "GI Jane") in the late 90s, then proceeded to take the new few years off. So the buzz on her isn't going to be "awesome, Demi Moore is back in action". It is "sheesh, when's the last time one of her movies hit it big?".

The only real success she can point to in the last decade is a supporting role in the "Charlie's Angels" sequel. You don't get an A-list salary with a C-list resume.

Well, reading back through these comments, I do take exception to some of the sentiments here... I totally agree Demi is no Dame Judi Dench. And she whored herself up w/ the boobs and all, and therefore can't demand to be taken too seriously. (hell-o, "Striptease")

BUT there are many fewer older female actresses who get the high-profile, steady, choice roles that their male peers get. (Like Clooney, Pitt, etc.) Not saying there are none--all due props to Jodi Foster-- but the glass ceiling does exist for older women in entertainment. No question.

As far as I'm concerned, Demi appeared in only two films worth watching.... "Ghost", and "A Few Good Men". Of course though, both of those pictures were made before she decided that in order to be an attractive, sexy and serious modern day woman, a fake set of tits was necessary. How sad is that???? Although I don't fancy myself as a serious film "critic", IMHO she was VERY good in "A Few Good Men".

Older women miss out on the headlining roles for the same reason that Charles Martin Smith does: because they aren't good-looking enough.

Indeed. But I'd assert that even some of the homlier guys can score at times: Tommy Lee Jones and Gene Hackman both have had plenty of choice roles despite their looks. Both incredibly great actors, but a female who looks like that--old OR young, even with those chops-- will get no roles, or will only play pathetics or psychos.

Diane Keaton. There, I just thought of an older woman who gets some good romantic, leading role. But she's an exception to the rule for sure.

Catherine Zeta-Jones has that dark and exotic ethnic thing going on with her too. You'd never know she's Welsh by looking at her.

Everything about Demi screams that she is being dragged kicking and screaming into middle age, something she'd be far better off accepting on its terms. At least her surgeries have been relatively successful, doing more good than harm. Contrast Demi with what Meg Ryan did to herself.

As others have observed, if you look down the laundry list of things she's spent lots of money on to improve her on-screen presence, an acting coach isn't on there. Telling all by itself.

Both incredibly great actors, but a female who looks like that--old OR young, even with those chops-- will get no roles, or will only play pathetics or psychos.

That's not true at all. Meryl Streep, Sigorney Weaver, and Susan Sarandon get good roles all the time despite not being any more physically attractive as women than Hackman and Jones are as men. Although I guess Sarandon looked ok in "Rocky Horror", but that was years before she actually became famous.

Also (not that this undermines your argument, really) Gene Hackman hasn't worked in several years.

Perhaps Nicole Kidman is sucking up all the under-written parts for over-paid not particularly bright actresses? I'm not saying The Invasion was a dog, but it sure costs a fortune to feed.

OK, Nic, it's been four years since the Oscar and six year since you were in commercial success. I really hope The Golden Compass and Australia pay off because I think she's tapped out the post-Tom sympathy account.

oh and the last time I checked Helen Mirren won an Oscar last year and she's way over 40.

You mean the Helen Mirren who's been getting all the Oscar and Emmy and Golden Globe love for her roles in a British mini-series about Queen Elizabeth I, the final installment of a a British drama playing a role she originated around fifteen years ago, and a British feature?

If Hollywood is harder on women actors could it be because they select for beauty and boobs rather than acting ability early on and when the looks go, what is left?

Think of the actresses who keep working. I'm sorry but, really, Jodi Foster has a hard, sharp face. Glenn Close is striking because she's not beautiful. Good on her because "striking" stays over the years. (Some people look better in person... I'm not saying these people are not attractive by *normal* standards.) Julia Roberts has rather odd looks. Uma has a horse face. (Sorry... she *does*.)

The actresses that are still working when they are older, were fabulously successful when they were young as well and almost every one of them was recognizably herself. If you saw Julia Roberts on a magazine you never had to wonder who it was. Or Judy Dench? Meryl Streep, Sigorney Weaver, and Susan Sarandon? Glenn Close?

How does an actress create her brand if when she's on a magazine cover all the people who see it think it's a picture of Britney Spears? Maybe. With brown hair.